JATO

Well there is an old saying you get what you pay for. If someone in the
private sector can produce data that are so much better than the free
service the government provides, then the knowledgable people who need
these accurate forecasts would be able to tell the difference by
comparison. I believe a good product sells itself.

I agree that is true to some extent, but for example suppose someone says he
likes Osama Bin Laden and makes the most accurate forecasts. Do you really
think he'll be hired by many people in our country? Suppose a person makes
crummy forecasts and has a name like AccuWeather behind him or the endorsement
of many of his peers, is friends with people high on the proverbial
meteorological totem pole. I've been in the science long enough to realize
that it is to some extent not what you know but who you know - sort of like
a network of a bunch of people of like mind patting each other on the back
and leading themselves into wherever.